King Duncan Gardner
King Duncan I of House Gardner was the Duke of Bregate under the reign of King Richard II from 5E.1506 to 5E.1522, when he rose up in rebellion, declaring himself the King of the Yellow Rose not long after the Branding and after the Sunscourge Heresy, when his sorceress Aeronwen consigned the houses of Bregate to the triskelion brand of the Court of Locusts and finally revealed her true nature and consumed the power of the Phoenix, replacing dead Sól as the reigning power over Frey. King Duncan lead his armies to Agrawel, where the city fell to his invasion combined with the forces of House Beldrec and House Thrussell. However, the risen Duke's sorceress was not yet done with him; after the Deluge, when Agrawel and Bregate were destroyed by the floods caused by the Worldwound's opening, Ashtoreth turned the King of the Yellow Rose wilted; the fallen king became Ashtoreth's mouthpiece, the Rasper King, and returned to fallen Bregate, while King Elric V Thrussell claimed the crown of Bregate and the Hinterlands, soon marrying his companion, Dulcinea Gardner, the long-missing daughter of Duncan and shadow-wizardess. Through the union of Dulcinea and Elric, Duncan's failed legacy lived on beneath the heel of the Empire of Izevel. History Duncan Gardner was born in Elden Fortress in 5E.1452, the firstborn son of Duke Jafrelot, the ancient ruler of Bregate, and his wife, Duchess Elspeth Gardner. His brother, Cillian Gardner, was born years later, in 5E.1463, and became a knight of the White Rose in his youth. Under his father's reign, the young and handsome Duncan was married in 5E.1480 to the fair-haired Lady Alana Rayne, a noble daughter of Earl Riagan Rayne of Ryfall he met many times at court. They had a daughter, Julianne, that same year. Meanwhile, his brother retired from service to the Knights Templar after an injury and married Else Mallon in 5E.1483. They also had a daughter, Deirdre. Duncan and Cillian both were grown men by the time of the Half-Moon Heresy; then, their father proved himself a weak ruler when he recalled all the Goldsworn and available men-at-arms of the duchy to the city's alabaster walls in fear of an attack on Elden Fortress by the werewolves. At the same time, the Royal Army was fighting to secure the Hinterlands before they could move across the Cold River. Desperate, Jafrelot summoned the White Rose, who began to make their way southeast to meet with the rest of the Knights Templar. Jafrelot's ultimate failure was not expecting the betrayal of the Bishop of Bregate, Yorath; at the battle of Wallow on 7.5.1498, by Yorath's hand, the Knights Templar failed to arrive, and thus Dame Tyffayne, who had taken up her brother Pelleas's mantle, was routed and pushed back while many of her brothers were slain. The move deeply affected Duncan and his brother. Duncan rarely left Elden Fortress, even less so after tragedy struck again 5E.1503, when after the birth of his daughter, Dulcinea Gardner, his lady wife died. After Jafrelot's death in 5E.1506, Duncan took control of the duchy filled with trepidation, anxieties only increased when he was introduced to Aeron's Pact and the Infernal Pact. The reign of Richard II and Tegwen the Enchantress promised prosperity for Noslith and Bregate both for years; however, the arrival of Aeronwen, Duncan's mysterious court sorceress, brought security for the Duke. Aeronwen only improved the Duke's circumstance when she convinced him to stop sending souls to the Infernal Pact and end his affiliation with the dark organization, to which he readily agreed. He began to feel comfortable again, and found joy in other things than his beloved daughters. In 5E.1521, Dulcinea Gardner was kidnapped by the Infernal Pact. Upon her disappearance, Duke Duncan fell into a terrible depression and rarely left his bedroom or throne room, calling upon Aeronwen to speak for him. During his grief, at one point, the Heroes of Blackbridge entered Elden Fortress to seek words with Duncan about the disappearance of his daughter and Aeron Cyrill; Duncan did not move to speak, merely sitting upon his throne, graying and frozen in a malaise, while Aeronwen conducted the meeting for them. Aeronwen had more or less become ruler of Bregate during this period; however, Duncan experienced a resurgence in vigor when Bishop Anselm the Holy successfully engineered the creation of the Fifth Crusade through the Writ of Redoubt's approval by the Cardinals. He became a fervent and intelligent supporter of the Crusade, showing much of the intelligence he had shown before the Half-Moon Heresy. When Matthew Averill of Hambor was slain by the Dawn's Herald in 5E.1522, the same adventurers who once went by the names of the Heroes of Blackbridge and failed to save his daughter, he sought vengeance after them and helped the Fifth Crusade bring charges against them. When Duncan met the Dawn's Herald again, however, he encouraged Reiner Faron to show restraint and ultimately retreated from the encounter, appearing to be a close personal friend of the High Marshal, likewise appearing with twice the vitality than he had before the Crusade's dawn. Duncan Gardner left Agrawel shortly after the end of the trial, departing the morning after the night when Reiner Faron gave his life to restore the Princess Calanthe. The people of Agrawel saw Lemuel, Edmund, and Reiner's act as a miracle, and called Calanthe the Princess of Dawn, while Duncan and the people of Bregate, encouraged by Aeronwen, saw the act as a dark omen, calling her the Princess of Dusk. The Duke thus made plans with his sorceress Aeronwen that coalesced in the Branding: an event in which the Barons sworn to His Grace made their vows to the Yellow Rose anew. Not long after, following the events of the Fall of Lagarde and the Sunscourge Heresy, Duncan finally claimed the crown of Bregate and declared war on House Arvendon and Noslith while the Fifth Crusade marched to aid the Cardinals in their graying citadel. Duncan committed the Sack of Kerry, the Sack of Westmoor, the Sack of Overbrook, and assisted in the Fall of Agrawel. This would be his final campaign; afterwards, the Deluge destroyed his home city and sunk the city he conquered beneath the Sea of Saints, while Ashtoreth appeared before him one final time, to twist him and wilt him into her Rasper King, the Voice of the Empress.